Organizations are demanding leadership development that is more sensitive to context and supportive of organizational transformation, and critics of current leadership development practices claim ...they are too narrowly construed to yield meaningful results. Relational views of leadership may be the disruptive idea that helps reconstruct leadership development in ways that meets these concerns. To better understand how these relational views can impact the practice of leadership development, we examined the use a specific relational framework in one leadership development organization. We found that leadership development professionals used the framework to convey a relational point of view on leadership to their participants, to facilitate collective identification and action on leadership issues, to develop leadership by focusing on leadership culture, and to enable the democratization of leadership development. We use these findings to advance a constructive-developmental perspective on the development of leadership development.
This article argues that the current, widely accepted leadership ontology — leaders, followers, and shared goals — is becoming less useful for understanding leadership in contexts that are ...increasingly peer-like and collaborative. The further development of leadership theory calls for a corresponding development at the level of leadership ontology. Thus, an alternative leadership ontology is proposed: direction, alignment, and commitment. A theoretical framework based on such an ontology is sketched out. It is argued that such a framework can integrate emerging leadership research and ultimately stimulate the development of new leadership theory and practice.
Constructive-developmental theory is a stage theory of adult development that focuses on the growth and elaboration of a person's ways of understanding the self and the world. In this article we ...review how the constructive-developmental frameworks of Kegan Kegan, R. (1982).
The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Torbert Torbert, W. R. (1987).
Managing the corporate dream: Restructuring for long-term success. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin., and Kohlberg Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stage and sequence: The cognitive developmental approach to socialization. In D. Goslin (Ed.),
Handbook of socialization: Theory and research. New York: Rand McNally have been applied in the theoretical and empirical literature on leadership and management. Although the literature has produced a number of propositions, the notion that a leader's order of development should impact his or her leadership effectiveness or managerial performance has generated the most research. We found mixed support for this proposition as well as a number of limitations in the research in general. To have a greater impact on the leadership field, constructive-developmental theory needs to generate more robust research, to link more clearly with on-going streams of leadership research, and to explore the contribution of aspects of the theory beyond individual order of development.
Grounded in research and practice, the Visual Explorer™ Facilitator's Guide provides a method for supporting collaborative, creative conversations about complex issues through the power of images. ...The guide is available as a component in the Visual Explorer Facilitator's Letter-sized Set, Visual Explorer Facilitator's Post card-sized Set, Visual Explorer Playing Card-sized Set, and is also available as a stand-alone title for purchase to assist multiple tool users in an organization.
Any organizational culture holds tremendous power. Culture is a system of closely held beliefs that require certain behaviors and exclude other behaviors. It sets norms on everything in the ...organization. To change the organizational culture, senior leaders must begin by acknowledging their place in the culture, engaging fully in the work of advancing the leadership culture, and standing up first so that others can follow.
The complexities of the challenges faced by organizations call for new approaches to leadership development. In this article, the authors offer an approach called exploration for development (ED), ...consisting of three main aspects: navigating complex challenges, supporting competent shared sensemaking, and practicing leadership based on relational principles. They examine the practical possibilities of artistry in the face of complexity, as focused on the making and remaking of shared meaning. Sensemaking competencies supportive of this practical artistry are identified as paying attention, personalizing, imaging, serious play, co-inquiry, and crafting. Examples showing tools and techniques are drawn from a series of leadership development programs at a telecommunications company. Impacts of the programs were assessed in context of a developmental curriculum that included feedback, mentoring, and coaching.
